Thoughts on sewing and repetition

You don't read much else here these days but sewing, do you?  That could be because what I usually want to do most in the day is sit at my machine and stitch.

A few random thoughts about this ...

I love fabric.  I love working with color and patterns.  I love piecing quilts.  But I am a bit timid.  I have no formal training in design.  I have a hard time making up my mind.  I am afraid sometimes to try something because what if I don't like it and I've wasted all that fabric.

I learned to sew using patterns.  Perhaps one of my earliest sewing endeavors was an apron for
4-H.  It was going to be judged.  It had to be done right.  I read the instructions and followed the directions.  I learned to do things "the way you're supposed to."  That has served me well in some construction and finishing work, but I think it has had a bit of a stifling affect when it comes to design and creativity.

My daughter, daughters-in-law, sewing friends, and a couple of artists have been great encouragement lately, though I expect most of them have no idea that they have affected the amount of time I am spending at my machine and the frame of mind I bring to it these days.

First, Erin, Kandyce, and Kay.  They all sew, but they rarely use patterns.  Tutorials, sometimes, but I think they mostly look at things they like and then do them.  Erin makes repurposed dresses and skirts for Clara; Kandyce makes quilts from start to finish, doing the machine quilting herself - something I haven't dared yet; Kay finds something she likes at a thrift store and then cuts a little here, sews a seam there, adds an embellishment in another place and voila, a really cute outfit.  They are all intrepid when it comes to working with fabric.  I would like to be more fearless.

Enter a couple of painters whose work and words I've experienced recently.  Makoto Fujimura spoke last spring in his keynote address at the Charlotte Mason conference, of working with a Japanese master and painting straight lines for days in order to learn how to manipulate the pigment, understand his tools, develop his technique.  Just black lines, over and over and over again.  I immediately thought of sewing seams and doing it again and again and again, a bit like practicing scales on the piano or doing ball dribbling drills in soccer.  Repetition builds muscle memory and confidence in technique.  The more I sew, the more confident I become at my craft.

The other painter is Bruce Herman.  I saw his work at Duke recently.  Before going, I watched this video.  What struck me was the way he painted that face. (starting at about 3:08 in the video, and yes, the video is sped up in a few spots.  He didn't work that fast!) How did he know where he wanted these brush strokes to go?  Where a fine line, where filling in a space?  Practice, repetition - how big a part does this play in developing the painter's eye?  I am not a painter so I am surmising such confidence with the brush comes when you've done it again and again and again. You know how the paint is going to go on, how much variation in tone or value you need, what a certain type of angle or pressure with the brush will do to the stroke, how your materials behave.  That, plus ... because I'm sure it's not all just practice.

I have begun applying this lesson of repetition in my sewing.  In the time that has opened up to me this year, I have devoted much more to working with fabric. (and I have such a wonderful space for it now, too!)  I have a little motto - "a little sewing every day."  Sometimes it's a LOT of sewing in a day.  Other days do not lend themselves to much time at the machine.  Still, I can sew a few seams every day.  Each seam teaches.

I'm repeating the fabric I use.  Strips of sari fabric over and over.  We did it last summer and I've done it several times since on various projects.  I'm feeling very much at ease with using these fabrics and that is giving me greater confidence in my stitching.

I'm repeating projects, as well.  Not just one tetra pouch, but three, four, more.  I learn with each one.  With the first one, I learn the steps.  The next pouch goes more easily.  The sewing becomes a dance, step following step, flowing more smoothly and I start to play with fabric and enjoy the colors and textures more because I don't have to concentrate so hard on the basics of construction.

In the process of repeating projects, I'm repeating techniques.  Putting in a zipper, trimming seams and corners, folding and pressing straps, topstitching.  I get better at using my zipper foot, my topstitching is more even.  I'm happier with the end result and because I'm getting more skilled, I'm enjoying the process more, too.

None of this is surprising to me.  I learned about repetition while training for the triathlon last year.  It's just interesting to me to see how it plays out in a very different type of activity.  Repetition is a key to mastery in all kinds of endeavors.

And what about that timidity.  Well, just as I got past some fears with regard to my physical abilities in swimming, biking, and running last year, I'm looking forward to getting past my sewing timidity, especially in design and the use of color.  I'm starting to understand some of the steps I need to take with fabric in order to get beyond timid to confident and even intrepid, but more on that next week ...

Because today, ironically, I am taking almost everything out of my studio!  Design wall, cutting table, it's all got to be moved out before next week along with fabric, books, machines, even the new valance.  Because ... drum roll ... we're getting new floors and it's going to be dusty and messy in here.  But when it's all done.  Oh, my!  How bright and clean and beautiful our dark downstairs is going to be. I am going to miss my gray painted floor just a wee bit, but I don't think it will take long to get used to oak!  And I have a new-to-me desktop painted with the leftovers of the gray floor paint to remind me of the beginnings of this process of inhabiting my studio.

Almost done!

Here we are with all the stuff strewn on cabinets and floor waiting for places. 

I decided to reuse this old sliding door cabinet that has been in the garage for ten years.  It was filled with lots of junk and a few treasures which were duly sorted and tossed, shared, or added to the piles.  The doors were removed and scrubbed, the inner dividers removed and scrubbed, the top scrubbed, the metal sliders "sanded" with steel wool and scrubbed.  You get the idea.  The thing was dirty!  But now, it has new life.  I thought about painting those louvered doors but after cleaning the wood well, it really looks quite nice so it's staying as is.  Except as you may see in a later photo, it is now pristine on top, with just a few choice items, including the knitting needles and sewing tools at the ready.

See, I told you there was a lot of stuff.  Those two bins were full of everything that came out of the drawers of my massive desk.  Lots has been thrown away.  Some, you will see in a moment, is still sitting in slightly neater piles, waiting to be put away in a newly painted file cabinet.

Here are the shelves ready for assembly and installation.   Sorry for the dark photo.  It was evening.

Here they are a couple of days later, up and stocked.  Goodness, I love them.   And see the Indian stars.  Thank you, thank you, Kandyce.  I love them, too.

And the cutting table.  Ahhhhh!  It doesn't have a top yet, but for now the self-healing mats will do nicely.  Pretty, pretty to see that fabric just waiting to be used!  I also found a sweet little rug/wall hanging that I got years ago in Kenya (I think).  It's been tucked away in a box for a long time.  On the bare floor, it makes a nice little area rug to stand on beside the cutting table.

This is the corner that still needs work, but progress has been made.  The old black file cabinet from the garage, full of spider webs and pretty icky, has been cleaned and painted gray.  That aforementioned pile beside it is what remains to be sorted and organized in the drawers.  I'm still looking for a table, still wanting to repurpose an old table by cutting out a hole and mounting my machine in it flush with the top.  In time, in time.

And in the corner... well, the chair is not reupholstered yet, but kitty Madison doesn't seem to mind.  He has claimed this spot as one of his new favorite sleeping spots.  

There are branch curtain rods waiting for the perfect curtain fabric (I haven't decided what that is yet) and a small fabric covered table for my computer.  I expect in the weeks and months to come, I'll do a whole lot of living and working in this room.  Every time I walk through it now, I feel a happy contentment and eagerness to get fabric out on that cutting table.

Tomorrow ... tomorrow!

Moving in ...

The painting is done (except for a bit of molding at the top), the floors are done (except for wood at the thresholds), and I'm starting to move back in!

The design wall is up and it truly fills an entire wall with only a little space to spare for the ironing board to be tucked away when not in use. I stuck a couple of free play quilt blocks up to see how nicely they stick to the flannel.  They really do!  I'm going to add a rod or line above the wall so that I can hang finished quilts since once they are sewn together, they are too heavy to stick to the wall.

I do love this little chair right in the corner.  It's still in the process of getting a facelift.  You can see it's getting its old fabric ripped off, bit by bit, and will be recovered before too long.  Still trying to decide what to use and whether I have enough of something that I really like in my stash of decorator weight fabrics. 

I already love this cutting table. It's also not quite done yet - it still needs its top and perhaps and base and feet, but it's usable and I started carrying fabric back in this morning and organizing it in the cubbies.  Happy sigh.  

There is still more to do.  Additional storage space and shelves on the wall, curtains at the windows, a thread holder to make, and pictures on the walls, and eventually, when I find just the right table, a better sewing table than what the machine is currently sitting on.  But the room is almost done enough so that I can start sewing again. Then I can get going on all the projects in the queue and new ideas that have been percolating while the sewing room/studio takes shape.

It feels so bright and airy, so clean and calm.  Such an improvement!

While I wait ...

for the polyurethane on the floor to cure (meaning get nice and dry and hard and durable so my floor will stay pretty), I am working on other studio items:

The Design Wall

 Two pieces of 4x8 insulation foam with tongue and groove sides that slide together, 

held together with duct tape across the back. I just got home with flannel and

will be stretching it across the boards and then it'll be done!

Window treatments!

Branches from the tulip tree out front, 

cut, trimmed, sanded and coated with 

leftover polyurethane.

It's coming, it's coming ...

Progress

Floor primed.  One coat of paint on the walls.  More sanding.  

Glad it was warm enough for an open window and  fan.

Floor painted and one coat of polyurethane applied.

Since the picture, two more coats have gone down

Walls painted, and though this picture doesn't show it, all the trim

is now painted, with thanks to my sweet sister who is, among many other things,

a trim painter par excellence!

I'll be sewing in here before long!

I found the cord ...

...for my camera so I can show you the progress on the November project ...

First, the BIG rolltop desk had to go.  The printer will go, too.  The antique chair in the corner will stay but get a facelift with new fabric.  There are several other items that will stay - my grandmother's tatted handkerchief and the stars the Kandyce brought me when she and Jonathan returned from India last year.  They've been removed for now, but they'll be back.

We've had these bookshelves for years.  They are being relegated to the garage.  What a mess, huh!  The room didn't normally look quite so bad but everything got scattered and piled helter-skelter when the desk was cleaned out.  We had to shove everything to the side to make room to move it.  

This little white desk was a Goodwill find, but it really doesn't work well as a sewing table so it's going, too.  This spot evolved without a lot of forethought as the room transitioned from classroom to sewing room, but it became a rather unworkable, unorganized, cluttery space.  The shelves were taken down and that ugly, never painted, yellow chair rail removed to make a flat space for the design wall.  I'm rethinking the positioning of the design wall, so if it doesn't go in that space, the chair rail will go back up - painted at last.

And here ... stage 1.  The carpet is gone, the paint sample on the wall, the carpet tack strips all pulled up.  (those things are wicked!) Since this picture, the seams have been filled with wood filler, the floor sanded and primed, and one coat of Behr Foggy Morn porch and floor paint applied.  The walls have also been painted Olympic Aqua Sparkle - it's not quite as jazzy as the name implies.  On the contrary, it's very light and calm .  I love the colors!  For now the room is still empty.  One more coat of floor paint and then polyurethane, I think.  

In the interim, while paint and poly dry, I'm assembling shelves for the cutting table and just thinking, and envisioning the space and how I will be using it.  I hope to get the design wall made early this week. Seeing it will really help me think through other storage options and work areas.  The cutting table will go right in the middle of the room (I think).  

It's coming.  More slowly than I would like, of course! I'm chomping at the bit to be sewing again but telling myself to be patient, imagining just how wonderful it will be to work in this space when the transformation is complete!